# Duel Palace — 227
The wind came for me first.
Hi-Speedroid Kitedrake split the sky above the Duel Palace.
Every warning light on my console turned red together.
DESTRUCTION EFFECT DETECTED. ALL FIELD CARDS TARGETED.
Three feet above my visor, glowing green on the steel archway over the curve, was an Action Card.
All I had to do was lift my left hand.
Four inches. Maybe less.
My fingers moved on their own. The glove left the grip and rose toward the light—
—and I heard the rain.
...
It always started with the rain.
Fifteen years ago. The Commons. The south drainage district, where the textile mill had closed and the water in the gutters was the color of rust.
I was eight. My shoes had no soles left, so I wore two layers of plastic bags inside them, and the bags filled with water every time I ran. I was running then. My ribs hurt with every breath. I could still taste the coal smoke at the back of my throat.
"Taro! Taro!"
Taro was seven. He had a gap where his front tooth used to be, and he laughed through it like a whistle. He shared his bread with me when I had none, and he told everyone I was going to be a pro duelist someday, even though neither of us owned a single card. Yet I beleived in every word he said.
I found him behind the mill.
Three older boys had him against the brick wall. Taro was on his knees, and his face did not look like his face anymore.
"Look," the tallest one said, tapping his pipe against Taro's shoulder. "The little rat brought a friend."
They turned to me. They didn't run. Why would they? In the drainage district, nobody came. Nobody ever came.
"Go on, hero." One of them pulled Taro up by his hair and held him out toward me, like an offer. "Take one more step."
I wanted to.
I want you to understand that. I "wanted" to. I wanted to throw a stone, scream, put my small body between Taro and that pipe and say 'stop, he's my friend, people aren't supposed to do this to each other.'
My legs would not move.
My throat would not open.
I stood in the rain with my fingernails dug into my tattered pants, and I cried without a sound, and I watched. They took their time. They kept looking at me while they did it. My fear was the part they enjoyed most.
"Coward. Coward. Coward. Coward."
Then the puddles began to shake.
It was an engine. A white D-Wheel came sideways around the corner with red strobes spinning.
"Security—!"
The man who got off it was huge. Black uniform. A jaw like a block of stone. He did not draw a weapon. He did not shout. In five seconds there were three boys in the mud and three pipes rolling, and then the boys were gone.
He knelt by Taro. He pressed two gloved fingers to his neck. Then he took a silver whistle off his belt and dropped it on Taro's chest.
"He is okay. But blow it if you need help. Security will know by this."
I wiped my nose on my sleeve. My voice cracked. "How... how did you beat all of them? Why did you help us? How did you know we needed help?"
He looked at me from inside his helmet. I couldn't see his eyes. "I was near when I heard screams.
"I didn't do it for you. Not for thanks. Not out of pity." He swung back onto his machine. "I did it in the name of Justice. That is the only reason a man needs to be strong."
Something lit inside my chest, hot enough to drive out the cold.
"I'll be like you!" I screamed after him. "I'm going to wear that uniform! I'm going to bring real justice to this city! Sir—what's your name?!"
The engine roared.
"Tetsu Ushio."
After that, I took Taro to nearby hospital of City.
They put Taro on a stretcher. They looked at his torn shirt, his bare feet, the drainage district mud on his skin. They looked at each other.
The clinic in the Commons had one doctor, and the doctor had forty patients. The hospital in the Tops had a hundred doctors, and it took no one without a citizen's account.
Taro lay on a cot in a corridor for nine days.
On the tenth day, the wound in his side had turned black, and his fever was so high he didn't know my name.
On the eleventh day I sat next to him and held the silver whistle in both hands, because Security had said to blow it if needed help, and I believed, with all my eight-year-old heart, that if I blew it someone would come.
He stopped breathing a little before dawn.
I blew the whistle until my lips bled.
No one came.
...
The memory broke, the way it always did, at the sound of that whistle.
The floodlights came back. So did the roar of thousands people, the scream of Kitedrake's storm, and the Action Card glowing above my head.
My hand was still raised.
I looked at it, the black glove reaching for a free card, the way a hungry child reaches for candy he didn't earn.
"No."
I put my hand back on the grip.
I didn't put this uniform on to beg the sky.
"Trap card, open!" My voice came through the trackside speakers like a gunshot. "Ancient Gear Rivet Wall! When a card effect would destroy cards I control, I send one 'Ancient Gear' monster from my Deck to the Graveyard. This turn, my cards won't be destroyed!"
A card left my Deck and I slid it into the Graveyard slot. Ancient Gear Bulwark.
A transparent barrier shielded my cards. Kitedrake's storm hit it and broke apart like waves against a pier.
On the other side of the track, Yugo's own face-down card, the scarecrow that had saved his monster last turn, blew apart in the gale he'd created himself.
"He blocked it!" Melissa's voice cracked. "And he flew right past an Action Card to do it! Duel Chaser 227 refuses help even when the hurricane is right on top of him!"
Yugo's head turned toward me. I couldn't see his face, but I saw his shoulders, and I knew what that tension meant.
"Tch... then I'll break through head-on!" He cried out. "Kitedrake! Attack Ancient Gear Hell Hound! Whirlwind Dive!"
"Trap card, open. P-Proto Iron Net."
Electrified cables fired and wrapped around Kitedrake's wings in midair. The dragon screamed and twisted, sparks raining off its frame.
"When an opponent's monster declares an attack, that monster loses 500 ATK for the rest of this turn, and its attack is negated."
[ATK 3000 → 2500]
"I set one card face-down," Yugo growled. "Turn end."
[ATK 2500 → 3000]
Yugo LP: 4000
227 LP: 2400
# Turn 5 — 227
"My turn. Draw."
I had studied this deck in the slim time I had, yet my mind was already racing with all the possibilities I can use to win.
"I Normal Summon Ancient Gear Legion Soldier!"
A brass foot soldier marched onto the road.
[Earth / Machine / Effect / Level 4 / ATK 1600 / DEF 1400]
"I can use it to Tribute Summon even after I have already used my summoning phase. And when I Tribute Summon an 'Ancient Gear' monster, Legion Soldier counts as two Tributes." I raised my hand. "I tribute Legion Soldier!"
The soldier collapsed inward, folding into its own gears, and the gears dropped through. A deep, rhythmic grinding, so heavy I could feel it through the seat of my D-Wheel.
Clank.
Clank!
CLANK!
"From the age before law, the first iron giant rises. Crush every crooked road flat!
"Tribute Summon! Ancient Gear Golem!"
The road split.
A giant of rusted bronze heaved itself out of the crack. Its single eye lit up red behind a grille of old iron. When it stood straight, its shadow covered Yugo's whole lane.
[Earth / Machine / Effect / Level 8 / ATK 3000 / DEF 3000]
...
Up in her suite, Celina was on her feet. Because 227 had used a monster only Academia's elite force was allowed to have as a honorable award.
...
"I would not waste Director's faith in me"
"Quick-Play Spell, activate: Gear Overload. My Ancient Gear Golem gains 1500 ATK. At the End Phase, it is destroyed."
[ATK 3000 → 4500]
Steam blasted out of every joint in the Golem's body.
"He's burning his own monster!" Melissa gasped. "Duel Chaser 227 is sacrificing his giant to finish this turn!"
"Battle!" I pointed down. "Ancient Gear Golem, attack Hi-Speedroid Kitedrake!"
"Trap ca—" Yugo's hand slammed onto his console, and stopped.
His face-down card didn't move. The panel under his palm flashed red.
ACTIVATION DENIED
"What?! Why won't it—"
"When Ancient Gear Golem attacks, my opponent cannot activate Spell or Trap cards until the end of the Damage Step."
His face-down card stayed down. I could see in the way his head jerked toward the walls exactly what he would try next.
He threw his D-Wheel to the outside lane, and rode the curve up the wall. An Action Card was on the wall ahead.
"Action Card—!"
ACTIVATION DENIED
He stared at it.
"Action cards too," I said quietly. "Not even the sky will answer you now."
The Golem's fist came down.
Kitedrake raised both wings to shield itself, and the punch went through them like they were paper.
Yugo LP: 4000 → 2500
The shockwave hit Yugo's D-Wheel sideways. He pulled it back with his whole body.
"Ancient Gear Hell Hound, Direct attack!"
The two-headed hound sprang forward. 2600 ATK. Yugo had 2500 left. It will end things now.
"N-not yet!" He wasn't looking at me. He was looking up. It was on Action Card already resting on his hand.
"Action Card: Slipstream Guard! The battle damage I take this turn is halved!"
A thin tunnel of green wind wrapped around him. And my monster bite him.
Yugo LP: 2500 → 1200
He screamed when the damage hit. Not loudly. Through his teeth.
"And once again Yugo grabs an Action Card to survive!" Melissa cried. "But he's down to 1200! And Goyo Guardian still hasn't attacked!"
"Goyo Guardian, end it."
It rose up, his jitte spinning.
I watched Yugo's hand go to his hand of cards. I'd seen it on the footage: the little panic before he played something outcome changing.
"From my hand... I activate the effect of Speedroid Rubix Kuriboh!"
A tiny cube tumbled out of the air: a toy puzzle, nine colored squares on every face, with two round eyes in the middle of its front face and stubby little brass arms and legs. As I watched, its eyes flicked from white to blazing red, and the whole cube twisted, the red face rotating forward.
[Wind / Machine / Tuner / Effect / Level 1 / ATK 100 / DEF 100]
"Red face! When an opponent's monster declares an attack, I can discard this card to negate that attack!"
The cube threw its tiny arms out, and Goyo's jitte hit a flat red wall of light and bounced off. The little Kuriboh spun once, its colors shuffling, and vanished with click.
"I set two cards. Turn end." I looked at the Golem. "End Phase. By the effect of Gear Overload, Ancient Gear Golem is destroyed."
The giant's glowing armor cracked. It went down on one knee and then fell forward onto the road, breaking into rubble.
"He gave up his strongest monster for a single turn of attacks!" Melissa said. "Was it worth it?!"
# Yugo
The roar of the stadium was gone.
Not quiet. Gone. Like someone had pulled the plug out the world.
Yugo's D-Wheel was still moving. But the track around him had gone dark, the lights fading into a black, endless sky, and in the dark, there was a heartbeat.
Thump.
Red light flickered at the edge of his vision. A boy's voice, warm and too bright, like someone forcing a smile:
"—you're hurting, aren't you? Let me help. Ladies and gentlemen, it's showtime—"
Thump.
Black. A voice like a blade dragged slowly out of its sheath:
"Your anger is right. Let it burn. Use it. Rebellion is the only—"
Thump.
And a third, softer one, that he didn't understand at all. A whisper, blurred, sad:
"You're not alone, Yugo. Please... let us in..."
His heartbeat began to match theirs. His fingers loosened on the throttle. For one moment it felt good: like falling asleep, like the weight on his back was being lifted off by other hands.
Then a picture flashed through his mind. A girl with green hair standing on a rooftop, seeing the sun diving into horizon, grinning at him with redness on her cheeks.
"You and me, Yugo. We're gonna ride and fly to the top of The City together. Promise."
"GET OUT!"
He screamed it so loudly that his throat tore.
"Get out of my head! I don't know who you are, and I don't care! THIS IS MY DUEL! Mine and Rin's! Nobody else gets to ride this D-Wheel!"
The dark shattered.
Floodlights. Wind. The roar of the crowd crashing back into his ears. He was still on the track, still at 1200, still sane.
A drop of blood ran down from his nose, and he licked it off his lip without noticing.
# Turn 6 — Yugo
"He's yelling at nothing," I thought, watching him ride out of the curve. "Talking to himself. Concussion?"
"My turn!" Yugo snarled. "DRAW!
"I control no monsters, I can Special Summon Speedroid Terrortop from my hand!"
A spinning top dropped onto the road.
[Wind / Machine / Effect / Level 3 / ATK 1200 / DEF 600]
"When Terrortop is summoned, I add one 'Speedroid' card from my Deck to my hand! I add Speedroid Darumaknocker!
"Next! I Normal Summon the Tuner monster, Speedroid Darumaknocker!"
A round, red daruma doll with a mallet in each hand thumped down, with numerous darumas.
[Wind / Machine / Tuner / Effect / Level 4 / ATK 1200 / DEF 1800]
"Darumaknocker's effect! When it's summoned, I can target one monster on the field and return it to the owner's hand! I'm sending Goyo Guardian back where it came from!"
The daruma swung shot one darumas on Goyo. My enforcer rocked back, and was sucked down into my Extra Deck.
"Goyo Guardian is gone!" Melissa yelled. "Yugo is fighting back!"
He didn't stop. "Spell card: Speed Recovery! I Special Summon one 'Speedroid' from my Graveyard! Come back, Hi-Speedroid Chanbara!"
The twin-bladed warrior burst up out of the road on its kendama board.
[Wind / Machine / Synchro / Effect / Level 5 / ATK 2000 / DEF 1000]
"Battle! Chanbara, attack Ancient Gear Hell Hound! Chanbara gains 200 ATK each time it attacks!"
[ATK 2000 → 2200]
2200 against 2600. It wasn't enough. He knew it wasn't enough. His head was already turning.
There was an Action Card on the outer wall of the next curve, high up, where the banking went nearly vertical.
Yugo opened the throttle all the way.
"Action Spell! Overspeed! Chanbara gains 600 ATK until the end of this turn!"
[ATK 2200 → 2800]
Chanbara's blades flashed twice. Hell Hound's two heads came off at the same time.
227 LP: 2400 → 2200
The hit rattled me. I held the line.
"Chanbara can attack twice! Direct attack!"
[ATK 2800 → 3000]
"Trap card, open. Ancient Gear Ambush. When my opponent declares an attack, I Special Summon one 'Ancient Gear' monster from my Graveyard in Defense Position. Return, Ancient Gear Bulwark."
A squat machine of riveted plates slammed down in front of my D-Wheel.
[Earth / Machine / Effect / Level 4 / ATK 0 / DEF 2500]
The attack replayed. Chanbara chose the Bulwark, and its blades went through the shield.
"Terrortop! Direct attack!"
The spinning top screamed across the gap and struck me in the chest.
227 LP: 2200 → 1000
The pain went through me like a hot nail, and I bit down.
One thousand. If he attackes with Darumaknocker, it's over.
And there, glowing on the guardrail beside me, there was an Action Card.
I could see. I could see the crowd in the upper Commons tiers watching me, waiting to see what I would do.
I kept both hands on the grips.
I rode past it.
"He passed it," someone said, loud enough to carry. "He's at 1000, and he passed it."
"Turn end," Yugo said. His voice was hoarse.
"Why didn't Yugo attack?!" Mellissa's response was natural.
"When Darumaknocker has activated it's effect, it can't attack that turn." Yugo replied.
[Hi-Speedroid Chanbara: ATK 3000 → 2400]
Yugo LP: 1200
227 LP: 1000
# Yugo
1000 life points. He just needs one hit and it will end. But he thought there was still more to it.
He closed his eyes for just one second, at the straightaway, where the road ran flat and he could trust the D-Wheel.
And he saw it.
Not a vision this time, not voices. Something quieter. His cards, laid out on the green track like parts on a workbench: Darumaknocker, Terrortop, the set card, the little cube sleeping in his Graveyard. And through them, running from one to the next, a thin line of green light, current running through a circuit board, the way the junk wiring in the orphanage's old radio used to glow when Rin finally got it working.
The current ran from the face-down card. Through Darumaknocker and Terrortop. Up into a shape with clear, wide wings.
And then the line went dark.
There was a gap. A part missing. He couldn't see what came after the wings.
Click.
The current flickered at the edge of the gap, like it was waiting for something to close the circuit.
Yugo opened his eyes.
"...I see it," he whispered. "I don't get all of it yet. But I see it."
# Turn 7 — 227
"My turn! Draw!"
This vardwas the one I'd been waiting for. I let out a long breath, and I allowed myself to feel it.
"Thank you, Director."
"Spell card. Re-Assembly. I Special Summon one 'Ancient Gear' monster from my Graveyard, ignoring its Summoning conditions."
The asphalt began to glow again. Bronze plates rose out of the cracks, a body putting itself back together out of its own wreckage.
"Rise. Ancient Gear Golem!"
[Earth / Machine / Effect / Level 8 / ATK 3000 / DEF 3000]
"Then I Normal Summon the Tuner monster, P-Proto K-9 Unit."
A mechanical police dog with a siren mounted on its spine bounded onto the track and barked once, sharp and metallic.
[Earth / Beast / Tuner / Effect / Level 3 / ATK 1200 / DEF 600]
"I tune the Level 8 Ancient Gear Golem with the Level 3 Tuner, K-9 Unit!"